Kiss Me Again
by StayAwakeAmber
Summary: The first time Alex looks at Tay he knows he'll fall for her. A girl he's never met, but Tay's had her heart broken so many times and has a fear of falling. Can they last with all the strain put on them or will it all fall apart. feat Alex Gaskarth Tay Jardine All Time Low We Are The In Crowd
1. rude awakenings

My eyes shot open at the sound of my front door being slammed closed. I rolled over in bed and groggily checked the time. It was slightly early for my mom to be home yet, there goes my lie in. I probably had a good 10 minutes before she realised I was still asleep and came up to wake me up. I curled up and shut my eyes, better make the most of it. About 10 seconds later my door burst open and Jordan charged into my room, he walked over and started jumping on the end of my bed.

'Get up! Get up!' he started chanting everytime he landed on my bed.

'Fuck off.' I groaned, pulling the blankets over my head. I felt him stop bouncing and get off.

'TAY GET THE FUCK UP!' he screamed in my ear and pulled the bed covers off me. I pulled my legs against my chest at the sudden coldness.

'Fine. I'm awake. Now get lost so I can get dressed' I mumbled, covering my head with my arms.

'Okay, but if your not downstairs in 3 mnutes I'm taking out the super soaker.' He said and launched my pillow at his face.

Chuckling, he walked out my room. He was my best friend but god dammit he was annoying sometimes. I rolled out of bed and looked in the mirror, my eyes were half shut and my hair was sticking up all over the place. My nose ring sitting at a squint angle cause I couldn't be bothered to take it out last night. I got dressed in record time and brushed my hair so it sat all right and headed down stairs. I'd just been expecting Jordan but all the guys were sitting in my living room right now.

'Oh, hey guys?' I said wandering into the kitchen to get some breakfast. I shoved some bread into my toaster and covered it in strawberry jelly.

'So what you guys doing here?' I asked over the breakfast bar that connected my kitchen and living room.

'We got some big news.' Cameron said, spinning round in one of the chairs at the table.

'What?' I asked taking other bite of toast.

'We're going to Warped tour.' said Rob, what was the point in this? They would probably go without me anyway.

'Cool?' I said, Mike rolled his eyes.

'No, not like that' he said 'Tay, we're going to be one of the band's playing at Warped tour.'

'What?' I said and started choking on a piece of toast. Jordan slapped my bag, hard, and I coughed it down.

'Yeah.' he said grinning 'we just managed to get booked.'

'Are you shitting me?' I said

'we're 100% telling the truth.' said Jordan and stuck up 3 fingers in scouts honour. He always does that, even though he was a scout for about an hour.

'Well then I say Warped tour 2011 here we come!' I said excitedly.

**ALEX**

I sat looking at the long list of other bands who were going to be at Warped this year. Alot of them I knew but it wasn't really them I cared about, I wanted to know about all the smaller bands who were playing on the small stages. I looked at one and frowned. I think it was a miss print. 'We Are The In Crowd' surely it must have been we are in the crowd? I felt Zack look over my shoulder at the page.

'So what bands you going to see this year?' he asked

'I'm thinking about We Are The In Crowd?' I answered, still curious about their name.

'That's kinda weird grammar.' he said and looked at their name on the page.

'I'm gonna search them.' I said typing their name into the google search bar. I clicked on their wikipedia page.

'Female fronted pop punk band from New York.' I read aloud, I clicked on the picture of them and woah thier singer was pretty. I closed the tab and searched them on youtube so I could listen to their music. I clicked on the first music video result, Never Be What You Want. Their music was pretty good and quite similar to ours, also the fact they had both male and female vocals I thought was pretty cool. Though I couldn't stop focusing on how gorgeous the singer was. I looked at the comments for a second and found out her name was Taylor Jardine. I went back to google and searched her. She was apperantly 20 and from New York the band had formed last year and released their albums Best Intentions and Guaranteed to Disagree. I smiled, it was a great name for an album.

**TAY**

'Come on Tay! We'll be late!' Rob yelled up the stairs.

'Coming!' I said and jammed in my camo t-shirt before zipping my case closed and dashing down stairs. Cameron had managed to convince his parents into letting us use their van for tour, I threw my case in the boot and climbed in.

'We're on the road again.' Mike sang as we pulled away from my house and started the long journey to the first Warped your show in Louisiana.

Most of the way I either sat listening my iPod our reading. I had brought about 15 books to keep me sane on the long drives. We travelled for what seemed like forever until we finally reached the, what could only be deciribes as a massive field with a bunch of stages. Some dude who was working there told us we had 3 hours to set up and then they were letting in all the fans, he pointed us in the direction of our stage saying that someone there would tell us what time we were going on at. Jordan started to drive our van to the stage and almost knocked some poor dude down, he fell over out of shock from our van driving so close.

'Sorry!' I yelled out the window at the guy. When he saw me his eyes widened and he didn't reply. I sat back inside our van. Weird.

**ALEX**

'You okay man?' Rian said and helped me up.

'Fine.' I said clearing my throat.

'You sure?' said Jack smirking, 'You nearly got hit my a van.'

'I'm sure Jack.' I said.

'We better head to the stage and help them set up or Matt'll probably kill us.' Zack said.

'I'll catch you guys up.' I said and started to walk in the direction of where that van had gone.

That van had had Taylor of we are the in crowd or we are in the crowd in it, I still wasn't sure. I knew it was her when she yelled an apology to me out the window. Why hadn't I yelled something completely charming and witty back. Dammit. I eventually found their stage along with the help of a map I'd got. You wore them around your neck and it was just a map of how the venures would be set up. When I got there I saw 5 people including Taylor struggling around on the stage with guitars and amps etc. One guy who was extremley tall and lanky dropped a guitar. Another one ran over to him, he was slightly sorter and had brown hair and eyes.

'Oh you dropped yours, it's fine then.' He said and went back to setting up.

The other rolled his eyes and picked his own guitar back up. I felt my phone buzz inside my pocket, I opened the text message I'd just got from Rian.

_We're going on in about an hour and we're barely set up, could you come give us some help man! _

I sighed and pushed the phone back inside my pocket, took one last look at Taylor and started walking back to our own stage.


	2. we are in the crowd?

**TAY**

I waited at the side of the stage, we were doing everything abosolutely by our selves, we didn't have a manager or even any techs so we baisically just got a time and we had to go on at that time. No manager to help us, but we got it done.

'30 seconds.' Rob said, counting down on his watch until 2pm, that we when we were due on. I took a couple of deep breaths and peaked at the crowd there was about 100 people there, it was hard to tell but it was still amazing.

'3, 2, 1.' Rob said and we all ran out onto the stage, the crowd creaming.

'What's up guys, we're We Are The In Crowd thank you so much for coming out, this song's called Both Sides of The Story. The guys burst into the intro and I started to sing.

'If this is what you think is honest? Honestly, I think I'm gonna freak out.' I sang and Jordan started to sing.

I looked out into the auidence, people were singing back to us and it felt amazing to know people like the music we've made. I looked up to the slight hill beside our stage, there we're two people sitting there. I recognised one as the guy we nearly killled and the other was kinda tall and extremley ripped. They both looked extremly familiar but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. we continued with our set but I knew them from somewhere and it was etching in the back of my mind. I looked back to the crowd and noticed a girl wearing an All Time Low shirt and it suddenly hit me. Fuck, we'd nearly ran over Alex, the lead singer of All Time Low. I carried on singing thought 'd become suddenly nervous that they we're watching us. Their band was playing on one of the main stages and they were really good. Eventually we got through our set list.

'Alright that's it for us guys, thank you so much for coming out!' I said as we left the stage.

**ALEX**

This band's music was great, I think Taylor even saw me watching. I hope she doesn't recognise me as the guy she nearly hit with a van. I saw the band run off the after their show and run down towards the merch tables. I frowned and followed them, I looked around for a while 'till I found the We Are The In Crowd table, guess it wasn't a miss print. I walked over to them and Taylor saw me coming, she smiled.

'Hey, you're Alex right?' she said, smiling sweetly.

'Yeah, and you're Taylor?' I said, trying to impress her with my knowledge of her band.

'Tay.' she corrected me. 'Sorry for almost killing you by the way.'

'It's cool, I like to nearly be hit down by vans' I joked, she giggled and I smiled to myself.

'Yeah, Jordan isn't the best driver.' she said which earned a hey! from the tall, lanky one. She rolled her eyes and turned back to me, her 4 band mates behind her, setting up the merch.

'So is this your first Warped?' I asked

'Yep.'

'How you liking it so far?'

'It's totally awesome, everyone's super nice.' she said, smiling, I don't think she ever stopped smiling. I was about to reply when Jack, Zack and Rian ran over, Jack jumped on my back and I lost my balance and fell down. I was doing pretty well at embarassing myself with this girl.

**TAY**

It was then when his band mates walked over and tackled him to the ground. I had to stiffle a laugh as Alex pulled himself off the floor and hit one of the other member 's in the head. Jack i think his name was?

'Do you guys have anyone to help you out?' asked Rian, at least I'm pretty sure that's his name.

'Nope, it's just us but we manage.' I said, trying to hold back my laughter at Jack and Alex play fighting in the backgorund.

'That's pretty cool though.' the other one, Zack, said to me.

'I guess, it gets hard sometimes though.' I said, biting my lip as Jack kicked Alex in the back of the leg and knocked him down.

'One second.' Zack said and turned around to Jack and Alex, pulling them away from each other by their hair. Both of them going yelling in pain for Zack to let go.

'Sometimes I wonder why I joined this band.' Rian mutted and I laughed.

'Because you love us Rian!' Jack said and threw his arms around Rian.

'Or maybe a certain someone nagged me to do it and I joined so he would shut up.' he replied and shoved Jack off him, who then started pouting at Rian.

'Fine, I love you Jacko.' he said rolling his eyes. I laughed at them, seems like I was making firends here.

**ALEX **

I felt bad for not really helping out this morning so I did my part in packing everything away. I helped Tori lug a massive case of guitar's to the bus. Tori was Jack's girlfriend, she was a sweet girl. She was quite short, about 5''3 and just, and no more, came up to my shoulder. She had firetruck red hair but the ends were dip dyed a sort of neon red colour. She had bright blue eyes that she rimmed with eye liner and she never wore anything apart from converse, demin shorts and Glamour Kills t-shirts. She was wearinf JAGK cap, her hair sticking out the back in a messy pontail. We'd met her a couple years back when her band opened for us but their bassist had recently got married and had a kid so they weren't touring at the moment so Tori was helping us out on tour.

'Thanks 'Lex.' she said, she'd picked up Jack's stupid nickname for me but I didn't mind. At least she didn't call me Lexie like he did.

'No problemo Tori!' I said and we started to wander back to the stage, it was just starting to get dark and we're millions of stars bursting across the sky. I noticed Tay walking towards us.

'Hey Alex.' she said brightly, waving at me.

'Hey Tay,' I said smiling right back 'Uh this is Tori, Jack's girlfriend.'

'Hi.' Tori said in her usual perky voice

'Hey.' Tay said smiling at her 'I really wanted to show you something Alex.'

'Okay sure.' I said and she waved me to follow her.

Tori snorted and headed back to the stage, deliberateley leaving us alone. Dammit, she could read me like a book. I followed Tay towards the small stage where they'd performed earlier in the day.

'Where are we going?' I said curiously, she tapped the side of her nose and carried on walking.

I followed her, curiousity getting the better of me, she was so mysterious. She slipped down the side of her stage. There was about a 2ft gap between their stage and the fence that surrounded the venue. I looked around, there was no one around, before slipping in after her. I could just make out her figure in front of me, then it disappeared.

'Tay?' I whispered

'Right here.' she said and she was on the other side of the fence.

'How did you get through there?' I asked and she pinted to a gap in the bottom of the fence. I looked up at her, we really weren't supposed to leave the grounds. But then again we weren't actually leaving for another 3 hours.

'Come on.' she said, grinning from the other side. I looked around one more time before ducking under.


	3. warped tour

**ALEX**

I followed Tay into the forrest that sat beside the venue.

'Where are we going?' I asked again, she lit up her phone and used it as a torch.

'It's a surprise.' she said as I did the same, I followed her further into the forrest. You see anyone reading this would think I was mad. You don't just follow a girl you just met deep into a forrest. There was just something different about Tay.

'Almost there.' She said, it was practically pitch black around us. Suddenly I stepped out into a clearing.

'Ta da.' Tay said as I took in the scene in front of me.

There we're wild flowers growing everywhere. The clearing was probably only about 7 by 7 metres but it seemed nature had crammed as many flowers as possible into this space. All the flowers were blue, white and a deep purple color that seemed to glow under the moonlight because there was a huge gap in the trees where you could see all the stars. She wandered into the midddle of the flowers and lay down, disappearing from the density of them surrounding her. I walked over and lay down next to her.

'How did you find this place?' I asked, taking in the pure beauty of the stars.

'Today, I went for a walk and just stumbled on it.' She replied

'It's beautiful.' I breathed

**TAY**

I looked over at Alex, the moonlight was bouncing off his skin, it looked like it was carved from marble and glowed in the dim light. He was staring up at the stars, a crooked smile on his face that showed a dimple he had in his left cheek. He turned and looked at me, I looked up quickly, hoping he didn't think I was creepy for staring at him. The peaceful silence was interupted by his phone starting to blast out his pocket. I recognised All The Small Things by Blink was his ring tone.

'Hello?' he said and I listened to his half of the conversation.

'Just walking with Tay.'

'Do I have to?'

'Fine.' he said bluntly and hung up the phone. 'Sorry Tay, I gotta run, Matt's getting on my case for not being there before we leave.' He said and got to his feet.

'I should probably get back too, the guys will start to think I've been kidnapped or something.' I said and he helped me too my feet and he followed me back through the trees.

We talked all the way back and he held the fence open for me as a crawled through. He squeezed in after me. We slithered down the side of our stage and I turned and smiled at him.

'That was totally awesome Tay.' he said grinning.

'Thanks.' I replied and silence fell between us. Our gazes locked on eachother.

'I'll see you at the next venue.' he said and ducked down and pecked my cheek and the next thing I knew he was gone.

The kiss was so light and quick I could of imagined it. I trailed my fingers across the skin his lips had touched, it tingled. Grinning to myself I wandered back to the van.

**ALEX**

I made it back to our bus and clambered on, we always left the door open at Warped so we can come and go as we please. I got in and felt the whole bus turn to look at me.

'Hey guys.' I said awkwardly walking down into the bus.

'Where did you and Tay go?' Tori asked 'I was looking for you for ages.'

'Just about, mostly down by her stage.' I said as casually as possible. Tori shrugged.

'Okay.' She replied, I liked her like that.

She wasn't one of those girls who was demmanding, she knew when you didn't want to talk about stuff and she'd drop it. Jack flopped down next to her and wrapped an arm across her shoulder, she curled up under his arm. I smiled to myself, it was good to see Jack happy with someone. He'd had his heart broken more times than was humanly possible to count. He just tended to go after the wrong girls. Tori was real though, and she was everything he needed. I wandered down to my bunk and clambered in. My mind was stuck on Tay, how mysterious she was, the way she looked at the stars, how beautiful she looked under the moonlight. I couldn't help myself and I just kissed her. It was a fleeting moment and only on the cheek. I would love for her to be more than a friend but for now I just wanted to keep her as my friend.

**TAY**

The sun was up and I had the bigest cramp in my neck from sleeping in the van. Not to mention the fact I'd barely sleept. My mood could probably be described as irritable. I stepped of the van into the Tenesee air and the heat hit my like a ton of bricks. I could feel my mouth drying up. I sighed, let's getting setting up over and done with. At least we were here for 2 days and we didn't have to put everything away again 'till tomorrow. Setting up was reletively fast but pretty painful. The sun was beating down on us and I could practically feel my skin burning. This sun block better work. Once we were done I let out an exasperated sign and collapsed on the ground in an exhausted heap.

'Is this a bad time?' chuckled a voice from above me. I opened one eye and saw Alex standing over me, I laughed and patted the grass next to me.

'No, I'm not getting up though.' I said and he lay down next to me laughing. 'How can you be so cheerful in this heat?'

'I'm just happy all the time.' Alex said, the crooked smile I loved returning to his face. I rolled my eyes.

'My fuse is about this short today.' I said and held up my thumb and fore fingers about an inch apart.

'Oh cheer up Tay.' he said, I smiled. 'There, that's better.'

I rolled onto my back, chuckling. The grass here was really dried up, I closed my eyes and absorbed some sun.

'We're gonna set up the merch Tay!' I heard Mike call and I shoved my fist in the air, giving him thumbs up. There was no way I was moving right now.

'We don't get sun like this in Baltimore.' Alex said

'Not so much in New York either.' I said, starting to enjoy the heat on my face.

'So I've been thinking.' Alex said, I opened one eye and looked at him 'That you should come on stage with us today.' I raised an eyebrown at him.

'What do you mean?' I asked

'I dunno, help us out a bit. You could sing Remembering Sunday with me or something.' he said, I grinned.

'That would be awesome.' I said.

**ALEX**

Tay breifly told the guys were she was going then the two of us headed back to our stage. I was on in about an hour and I had to do warm ups and sound checks and shit so I should be getting back. We got to our stgae and I found Matt.

'Hey Matty Mouse, do you mind if Tay sings Sunday with us?' I asked, Matt shrugged.

'Sure, knock youselves out.' he said, I shot her thumbs up and she smiled at me. I started to get set up and did a quick sound check, couple of vocal warm ups and I was ready to go on.


	4. under the moonlight

**TAY**

I sat to the side of the stage, sitting on a massive amp that I think was connected to Jack's guitar. I watched their set for a while until the guys left the stage and Alex stood alone with his acoustic.

'This next song.' Alex started, speaking to all the fans 'Has always been a favourite for us to play, It's great because we get to bring in alot of different singer's to help us out on it, it's called Remembering Sunday.' he started to play the intro before singing perfectly into the mic.

Matt ran over and handed me a mic and told me he'd give me a signal for when I had to go on. I watched Alex for most of the time, my eyes flicking back to Matt every so often. He waved me towards the stage and I walked out on to it. The crowd cheered but most of them probably didn't know who I was. I began into the female vocals part of the song. I sang as best I could but it was hard because I'd be compared to Juliets vocals and our voices were totally different. I finished and took in a deep breath. Alex smiled at me and finsished up the song.

'Give it up for Tay Jardine of We Are The In Crowd!' he said and the crowd screamed, I laughed and waved before walking off.

I checked the time, shit. I was due on stage in 10 minutes. I ran from the All Time Low stage and practicallly pelted across the whole venue to get to our stage. I got there with 2 minutes to spare.

'You're late.' Jordan said chucking me a bottle of water. i downed most of it, desperately trying to get my breath back before I had to sing for an hour.

'Okay, I'm ready.' I said, my breathing nearly back to normal and we ran out onto the stage.

'Hello there Tenesee!' I said into the mic, the crowd here was slightly bigger to that of Louisiana. 'How are we feeling today?' they screamed in response' 'This song's called Both Sides of The Story.'

The guys started into the intro but my head was starting to fell dizzy and I missed my cue to start singing, Jordan frowned and looked at me while he sung his bit. There were huge blood clots in my vision and I could feel myself blacking out. Suddenly my knees buckled and I felt the ground coming up to meet me.

**ALEX**

I got off stage and looked for Tay, she wasn't any where on our stage, where I'd left her. I saw Tori doing something to the kick drum of Rian's set.

'Yo Tori!' I called, she spun round. 'You seen Tay?'

'Yeah she ran off just as she got off stage, went that way!' she yelled back, pointing in the directing their stage was.

'Thanks!' I yelled at her and walked off towards her stage.

I hope she was okay. There was probably nothing wrong with her, she probably just needed some shade or something. I caught sight of her sitting in a patch of shade, next to their stage, that the van was giving her.

'Tay?' I said carefully walking towards her, she'd gone really pale.

'Alex, no, go away.' she said, I felt a pang of hurt inside my chest.

'What's wrong?' I said as smoothy as I could manage.

'I don't want you to see me like this.' she said, then turned a greeny colour.

She spun round quickly and threw up into a bucket that was sitting next to her. I smiled sympatheticly and sat down next to her as she had a another round of sick. I patted her back.

'I probably look like shit.' she said finishing but not turnng round to me.

'You look beautiful Tay.' I said, rubbing circles into her back 'You always do.'

She turned around and looked at me, smiled once then spun round and threw up into the bucket again.

'I don't do well in the heat.' she said, I put an arm around her and she dropped her head onto my shoulder. I rested mine on the top of hers. I don't know how long we sat there for, all I know is that it got dark while we were.

**TAY**

I lay on the van floor, I couldn't stand trying to sleep sitting up. The guys were all asleep but I lay awake. I couldn't keep my mind off Alex. He was so different to any other guy. Normal guys would have been disgusted by me sitting throwing up but he sat and comforted me. There was something between us but there wasn't at the same time. We were friends who had chemistry. It was kinda killing me inside just being his friend but I didn't know if I wanted to be more just yet. What would I say to the guys? They had practically banned me from ever being with a guy again because last time I got my heart broken shut them all out. Would Alex break my heart though? There was only one way to find out and only two ways it could go. I could end up happier than I've ever been or have yet another hole punched in my chest. In a way I was scared to find out.

**ALEX**

I really needed to find out what Tay thought of me. I really liked her, and I mean really. Yet she was so hard to read. One minute she was leading me into a flowery meadow in the woods and the next she wanted me to leave her alone as she threw up multiple times into a bucket. I sighed and turned over in my bunk. Trying to force myself to sleep. That was it. Tomorrow was just going to find out and she would either like it or kick me in the crotch and run away cause she thougt I was a creepy molester or something. I was kinda keeping my fingers crossed for the first one.


	5. sparks fly

**TAY**

I skipped across the stage singing Rumour Mill. I noticed Alex standing a bit away from the crowd, I smiled at him from stage and he waved back. I felt my heart flutter slighting but I snapped out of it quickly and carried on with the set. It was better today, the weather was still blistering heat but there was a cool breeze. I skipped over to Rob and put my foot on this bass drum and started to head bang. I felt the blood rush to my head and stopped, probably not a good idea after yesterday. We headed back stage once we were done with the set, we had about a half hour to spare before we had a signing. I went on a hunt for Alex, I wanted to hang out with him before I had no free time until we had to leave for the next venue which was aparently somewhere in Texas. I found Alex, well I walked straight into Alex, walking towards our stage.

'Ouch.' I said, my nose had hit his shoulder pretty hard.

'Sorry Tay, you okay?' he said chuckling.

'It's cool, you just broke my nose but other than that I'm just peachy.' I said sarcastically, he rolled his eyes.

'My bad.' he said 'Now, I've got something to show you this time.' he said and grabbed my hand before starting to run off, dragging me along behind him.

I started laughing, which made me stumble a couple of times. Alex looked back and grinned at me. My chest was starting to heave, It still wasn't good to run in this heat. My nose starting to not feel so bad and I was very aware of the fact he was holding my hand. He suddenly stopped and I ran straight into his back.

'Fuck.' I grunted, hitting my nose again.

'Sorry again.' he said, crooked smile on his face.

I rolled my eyes as he started to walk towards his stage. When we reached it he dropped to his knees, he pulled back the material that was concealing the metal balances that held up the stage. He then crawled in, I laughed disbeliveingly and followed him under. I tried my best to weave in and out of the criss crossed bars like he was but I tripped a couple of times. Eventually, we managed to get to the other side of the stage. There was about a 10ft sqaure of grass concealed at the back of his stage. I suddenly noticed that there were fireworks sticking out the ground.

'You wanna give everyone a bit of a surprise.' He said mischeviously, pulling a lighter out his pocket.

I grinned at him and dropped to my knees beside the rocket shaped fireworks he'd stuck into the ground. He sat next to me and lit the end of the fuse, I suddenly noticed safety instructions on the side. We were supposted to stand 15 feet away.

'Uh Alex, we have to stand 15 feet away.' I said shuffling along the grass away from he firework.

'Fuck that.' Alex said, standing up.

He grabbed me off the ground and into his arms, pinning me against the back of his stage. Using himself as a human sheild from the explosion, my face buried in his chest. I heard it bang from behind him and I looked up, it exploded about 20 ft above his stage in a multitude of greens and blues. Alex put me down and cleared his throat.

'We'll be fine.' he said and I swear I could see him blushing.

'Light up the rest of them?' I said, sitting down.

Alex ran along all the rocket's lighting every fuse before running over and sitting next to me. Not 2 seconds after he's sat they all shot up wards one after the other. Exploding in the perfect blue sky in so many colours. I could hear ooh's and aah's from the other side of the stage.

'We should wait a couple of minutes before going back or people will know it was us.' Alex said.

'Yeah, and our cover would be blown.' I agreed we were silent for a moment until Alex broke it.

'So how's your nose?' Alex said

I laughed 'Its pretty sore actually.'

Alex smiled and leaned forward, kissing the very tip of it.

'Better?' he said, crooked smile playing at the sides of his mouth.

'Much.' I said, not breaking eye contact with him. Suddenly all humour was gone and the air got intense around us. We both leaned into each other, I stopped about an inch from Alex's lips and he pushed his against mine. It only lasted about a minute before I pulled away. What had I done? I thought I'd agreed with myself that it was to risky to be with someone right now.

**ALEX**

Tay pulled back suddenly like I'd burned her.

'No, I can't' she mumbled and got to her feet.

'What is it?' I said, starting to feel an aching hurt in my chest. She paced back and forth for a second.

'Ugh, this is so confusing!' she said, throwing her hands up in exasperaion.

'Enlighten me would you?' I said, starting to lose my patience. She seemed to sense the edge in my voice and she looked at me, her face sofening.

'I like you, a lot.' she said

'and that's confusing how?' I asked

'I don't know, Alex I've had my heart broken so many times.' she whispered. I got to my feet and walked over to her.

'I won't hurt you Tay.' I murmered to her, snaking an arm round her waist.

'You promise.' she said

'Promise.' I said back, her eyes seemed to open and let me in, before she leaned towards me to kiss me again. (see what I did there? ;)

**TAY**

I crawlled back through the stage and stood up at the other side. I turned to Alex who was just standing up too. He smiled and leaned towards me, I stuck my index finger against his lips.

'Can we keep it a secret for now?' I said, 'Until I find an easy way to tell the guys.'

'If that's what you want' he said with a smiled. 'I will see you later Taylor Jardine.'

'and I will see you around Alexander Gaskarth.' I said, rolling my eyes at him. He smiled sweetly once and started to walk back to his bus.

I headed of towards the tent where our signing was. My mind ticking. I would just keep it a secret for now and hey, if it actually went somewhere I'd tell the guys. For now, they didn't need to know. All I knew is he made me happy and that's al that really mattered to me right now.


	6. falling down

**HEY GUYS, ONCE I'M DONE THIS STORY I WAS THINKING ABOUT WRITING A PREQUEL? LIKE WITH JACK AND TORI? WOULD YOU THINK THAT WOULD BE COOL? :) -RACHEL XX**

**ALEX**

I got back to the van and let out a happy sigh, feeling slightly weightless and a little dizzy. I opened the bus and wandered in, there were various people everywhere including Tori and Jack who were attempting to make a Jenga tower out of Twinkies. I laughed at them and slumped down next to Tori, who was very carefully pulling one out.

'Hey Lexie.' Jack said watching her face careful, a look on his I didn't see a lot.

'Hey.' I said and yanked one out of the bottom. Jack and Tori both gasped as the tower swayed violently but steadied again.

'You should be killed for that.' Tori said chuckling and sitting back in the chairs as Jack attempted to be slick in pulling one out but ended up knocking them all down.

'God dammit!' he said laughing and Twinkies went everywhere.

'Good shot sweetie.' Tori said giggling.

'I'm gonna go to bed guys.' I said rolling my eyes, dammit they were so perfect together, but Tay was stuck in my head and I just couldn't stop smiling. They both looked at me.

'Okay buddy' Jack said, I raised an eyebrow at him, buddy? 'I mean uh, whore!' he coughed. I rolled my eyes, laughing and walked down to my bunk.

'Alex wait!' Tori said and a second later she was standing next to me.

'Hey Tor,' I said with the constant smile that I couldn't knock off my face,

'What happened?' she asked lowering her voice, smiling knowingly at me.

'Nothing.' I said, remembering Tay asking to keep it a secret.

'Something between you and Tay?' she said, I hesitated. 'OMG! I knew it so are you together now or-'

'Tori!' I hissed at her, she was raising her voice. 'No one is supposed to know, so shhh!' she giggled.

'Oh secret romance, how romantic.' she said winking, she sighed when I didn't laugh 'I won't tell anyone Lex.' she added and I smiled before she wandered back over to Jack.

**TAY**

I rolled over on the floor of the van, trying to get a half decent comfortable position, failing miserably. Alex's face was ticking inside my mind, and it felt strangely good. I turned onto my side and looked up at Jordan who was wide awake and staring at the ceiling of the van.

'Jordan.' I whispered, he jumped then looked down at me.

'Thought you were asleep, you just about gave me a heart attack.' he said quietly, I giggled under my breath.

'Can't sleep?' I asked, he shook his head 'me neither.'

'We really need a bus or something...' he said

'We will when we can actually afford one.' I whispered back.

'That better be soon because I can't stand this van.'

'Me neither.' I sighed and attempted to curl up into my usual position but my legs wouldn't fit. Sighing I turned over and forced myself to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to my phone beeping from my pocket, I was the only one still on the van. I sat up on one of the chairs and pulled it out.

_One new message: Alex (: _I smiled to myself and opened it.

_Morning beautiful, special breakfast for you, meet me behind the ATL stage in 15? Xx_

I grinned and got ready in record time before running over to their stage. I looked around, on one was watching so I slipped underneath the stage. I crawled through the bars carefully till I got to the back of the stage. Alex was there already, arranging a blanket on the ground. He looked up and grinned when he saw me, I completely melted inside.

'Hey.' He said as I stood up, dusting the dirt off the knees of my skinnies.

'hello…' I said as he walked over to me, he slipped his hand onto the back of my neck and pulled me close to him. I smiled as he pulled my lips onto his, I felt the blood flush under my skin as our lips met. He pulled away a few moments later, and took my hand. I followed him over to the blanket, we both sat down, he pulled over a basket. I laughed, I was learning he was kind of sappy but I loved it. He pulled out piles of amazing food and I grinned as he pulled out a flask.

'What is that?' I asked

'cold hot chocolate.' He said, I laughed.

'That makes no sense.'

'It's hot chocolate that I put in fridge because who would drink it warm in this heat?' he said smiling. He pulled out two plastic mugs and handed me one, pouring out the cold hot chocolate. I sipped it and grinned, it tasted better than it sounded.

'It's great.' I said. Alex smiled at me.

'I know.'

We sat for ages just talking, laughing and kissing occasionally. It was perfect. But all but to soon I had Mike calling me to say I was late for set up and I had to "get my lazy ass down there or I'm driving the van for the rest of Warped" and I had to leave.

'I'll see you around Taylor.' Alex said, I smiled and kissed his quickly.

'You too Alexander' I said before ducking under his stage again.

**ALEX**

I got back to the empty bus and stashed the leftovers before anyone could show up. I stuffed the basket back were I'd found it and snuck back out to find the guys. Where were they all?

**JACK**

'Did you just see what I did?' I said to Tori.

I was standing with her, the guys and Cameron and Rob from WATIC, we had been walking back from or merch table when we'd seen Alex and Tay crawl out from under a stage, kiss, and then walk away like nothing happened.

'Can't believe she hasn't told us…' Cameron muttered.

'Look guys,' Tori chipped in suddenly 'This only happened yesterday and they didn't want anyone to know, I managed to weasel it out of Alex though.'

'Oh.' Rob said

'Yeah, look we should just confront them about it?' Tori suggested 'It's stupid to keep it a secret that we know their secret.'


	7. homeless

**TAY**

I wandered back to the van slowly, just enjoying the lasting feeling of happiness Alex had given me. I reached the van and noticed the guys, All Time Low and the girl I'd met a few days ago, Tori, were all standing outside the van. Watching me as I walked towards them, Alex was standing looking at his feet, a sheepish look on his face. I felt nine pairs of eyes on me as I stopped in front of them.

'Hey guys?' I said, none of them even smiled.

'We know your secret Tay.' Cam stated, I stiffened, realising why Alex was standing so awkwardly.

'You mean you…' I started

'Yep.' Mike said bluntly

'Oh.' I mumbled and a thick silence fell over us.

'I'm happy for them.' Jordan said, breaking the glass like silence.

'Me too,' Jack added. Alex looked up at him, Jack just smiled at him.

'But why did you feel like you couldn't tell us T?' Cameron asked.

'I don't even know Cam.' I said sighing 'I just thought you'd think it would end up the same.'

'Don't be an idiot Tay.' Rob added, I looked up at him 'we're not going to stop you being with a guy, we see how happy he makes you, what kind of friends do you think we are?' he laughed.

'I guess I wasn't really thinking straight.' I added, laughing with him.

'Dude, what are you doing?' Zack said to Alex 'Hug her yah turkey!' Alex chuckled and walked over to me, wrapping him arms around my waist. I smiled and put mine around his neck, having to stand on my tip toes to sit comfortably against his chest.

'n'aw, young love' Mike said and I giggled, pulling away from Alex.

'Come on love birds, let's get something to eat.' Tori said and punched Alex friendlily on the shoulder.

**ALEX**

'Give it back!' Tay said laughing and chasing me past one of the main stages.

'you don't even need it!' I yelled back at her, holding her makeup bag in my hand.

'Alex!' she said catching up with me. I tried to run fasted but she jumped on my back from behind me. I fell to the ground underneath her because I wasn't expecting that.

'Give!' she said grabbing for the bag that I was pushing out of her reach. Tried not to laugh at the fact she'd only put liner on one eye before I had snatched her bag and made a run for it.

'You're too beautiful for it.' I said, taking juristic measures and shoving the bag down the front of my pants.

'I will go in there if I have to.' She said

'Go on then.' I said, grinning at her.

'Fine,' she said and very quickly jammed her hand down the front of my pants grabbed her bag and pulled it out again before standing up off me and smiling playfully. 'and you thought I wouldn't do it.'

'I stand corrected' I said and stood up. She shot me an innocent smile.

'Okay you can keep but I need a favour.' I said, sliding my hand across her hip bone to the small of her back and pulled her into my chest.

'What favour would this be?' she said

'Kiss please.' I said, she smiled and pressed her lips to mine.

**TAY**

I threw the bag into my case on the van, smiling the whole time I rubbed off the makeup I'd managed to put on before Alex stole my bag. If he thought I was beautiful without it then fuck it. Feeling somewhat better I wandered off the signing we had. I arrived at the tent and took the seat in the middle of the guys, in between Cam and Jordan.

'You look nice.' Rob said as I sat down

'Thanks.' I smiled

'You going all natural today?' Cameron added with a smile.

'Yeah, I like it.' I said, pushing my slightly messy hair behind my ear, as fans started to line up. I grinned at the first girl who came up to me. Her fringe was bleached and was slightly faded blue. The back of her hair was black. We were there for a while just signing things and giving them to fans, I always had some of the best conversations with them, I barely even considered them as fans. They were my friends. We were one big dysfunctional family, all our little crumbs. I was pretty exhausted by the time we were heading back to the van. I guess not sleeping in days really takes it out of you. We were about to get there when we ran into Tori who was heading back to the ATL bus.

'Hey Tori!' I called and she turned around and smiled at us.

'Hi, I've meant to ask before but where do you guys sleep?' she asked

'On the van floor.' I said grimacing.

'Are you serious?' she said, jaw dropping. I nodded. 'Not anymore, come on guys.' She grabbed my wrist and dragged us of in the direction of their bus, Jordan just managed to grab our bags before we were marched away from the van.

'Where are we going?' Mike said walking faster to catch up with Tori.

'We have spare bunks, you guys are not sleeping in a van anymore.' Tori said, I looked round to the guys who were grinning. We reached the bus and she pulled the, not locked, door open.

'Hey guys, I found some homeless people, I thought we could give them our free bunks.' Tpri said wandering into the slightly crowded longue. I noticed Alex on the couch, we was on his laptop, facing away from us, with his headphones in. Tori rolled her eyes and I wandered over to him, I slumped down next to him. I peered over his shoulder at the screen, he had his twitter mentions up. I pulled one of his headphones out.

'what you up too?' I asked, he practically jumped out of his skin and I grabbed onto his laptop before it fell off his lap. I laughed.

'Sorry, did I scare you?'I said.

'Noooo,' he said, closing his laptop 'anyway, what are you doing here?' he was grinning at me.

'Tori offered us your spare bunks since we've been sleeping on the van floor.

'You've been what?' he said, raising his eye brows.

'Uh nothing….' I replied, winking at him.


	8. broken on the outside

My eyes shot open at the sounds of many voices singing, badly.

'Kiss me again!' I heard Jordan's familiar voice yell.

'Underneath the moonlighhhht!' added in another voice I recognised as Jacks.

'You're more than a frieeeend!' I heard Alex chip in, I rolled my eyes and slid out of the bunk I'd been given.

'Morning guys' I said wandering in.

'Good morning Jardine, how did you sleep?' he said, cheerily.

'Great' I said grinning, which I had. It was the first full night's sleep I'd had in days 'How about you Eckes?'

'I actually slept all night.'

'Congrats!' I said in mock excitement.

'Thank you!' he sarcastically replied and high fived me.

'I can't believe you guys have been sleeping in the van.' Alex said, he was sitting on the counter sipping from a mug of coffee.

'We're poor, we can't afford hotels.' I said with a shrug.

'You should have said, we would have given you those bunks ages ago.' He said, I smiled gratefully at him, before hearing my phone give a muffled beep from inside my bag that was sitting on the counter. I pulled it out and my eyes widened in shock. You have 389 new mentions on twitter.

'The fuck…' I mumbled and opened the app. I let out a broken noise, all of the tweets were from fans, ATL "fans", and they were hate. Every single one was from a girl talking about how I was destroying Jalex, some of them were extremely vicious. I bit down on my lip, trying as hard as I could not to cry.

'Don't pay them any attention Tay.' Alex said softly from behind me. I jumped, he's moved and was looking over my shoulder at my phone. I nodded sombrely, as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me back into his chest.

'Come on, we better get ready for the shows.' He whispered in my ear. I nodded again, wiping away the tears that had dared to come out.

**JORDAN **

Tay was totally out of it, she had a brave face on but I could tell there was something wrong. She was totally stiff and lifeless on stage and wasn't cracking half as many jokes as she usually did. It was if she's scared the fans were going to bite her or something. We finished the set and she didn't even wave, just stared at her feet as we walked from the stage.

'I think I'm going to skip on the signing' she said as we walked back stage.

'Uh, okay. Why?' Mike asked

'Just tired' she said.

_Bullshit._

He smiled weakly and wandered off.

**TAY**

I sat just to the side of All Time Low as Alex skipped around with his wireless mic. Singing and smiling at the fans. His happiness seemed to radiate off his and engulfed everyone, it made me smile. It all seemed to happen so fast after that. I saw the bottle being launched out of the crowd, at first I just thought it was another bra that was going over Jack's microphone stand. Then I saw it glint of the sun and realised it was made of glass. I barely had time to breathe as I saw it fly straight at Alex and smash over his head, he collapsed and there were screams of horror. For a second I stood in shock before my legs managed to move and I ran as fast as I could on to the stage, dropping to my knees next to him, my breath quickening at the sight of horror in front of me. Alex was completely out cold with pieces of glass lodged into his skin, there was a deep scar running from his temple and stopped just above his chin.

'Alex!' I screamed at him, tears flowing freely from my eyes. The rest of the band had ditched their instruments and were running over. I was starting to choke on my own tears 'Come on Alex baby, please wake up!' I whispered to him, Zack leaned down and grabbed Alex into his arms.

'Call an ambulance!' I heard someone scream but I was completely numb. Nothing else mattered right now. I ran after Zack and the guys who were running to the side of the stage. Zack put Alex down just where the fans couldn't see us.

'Ambulance will be here any minute.' Rian said, his voice coming out slightly strangled. I just nodded, I looked up at Jack who was just staring at Alex, utterly speechless.

'He'll be fine Jack.' I said and put a hand on is shoulder, he looked up and I could practically seem him snapping out of the daze. He cleared his throat and nodded, Tori then ran in with a couple off men. They pulled Alex up on to a stretcher.

'We can take one person only in the ambulance with him.' The one closest to me said.

'You go Tay.' Jack said

'No I couldn't' I started to argue 'He's your best friend an' I stopped when I saw the look on Jack's face, it just said bitch please. 'Thank you Jack' he smiled and followed the doctor into the back of the ambulance.

**4 Hours Later**

I sat on the orange plastic chairs in the hospital waiting room, my fingers gripped onto the bottom of it, my knuckles were going white but I didn't care. It was making me feel better. I looked up when the front door to the hospital, it was Alex's parents, I recognised them from Straight To DVD.

'We're here for uh Alexander Gaskarth.' Peter said.

'He is being tended to right now, please feel free to sit in our waiting room until you can see him' said the receptionist mechanically. They nodded sombrely and walked over, I stood up as they reached us.

'You're Alex's parents?' I said, my voice cracking. I'd been crying a lot in the last few hours.

'Yes, who are you?' said Peter, politely.

'Are you Tay?' Isobel added and I nodded.

'Oh, it's nice to meet you,' said Peter.

'You too' I said and he shook my hand.

'You're much more pretty than Alex described' Isobel said, usually that would have made me blush but I was too numb to really feel anything right now.

'Thank you'

'How long have you been here sweetie?' Isobel said as they sat down at the table next to me.

'Nearly 4 hours' I said, resting my head in my hands. My head was throbbing and I felt so tired, my eye lids were barely managing to stay open.

'Oh sweetie, you should go home' said Isobel

'I live in New York and I couldn't leave him here.' I said, we had been in South Carolina when it happened, it would take me hours to get home and I wanted to be here until he woke up.

'Okay sweetie, but at least try to sleep okay?' she added, I smiled weakly at her. I looked over at Jack who had completely passed out about an hour ago, his head was resting on the table. Tori was sitting next to him, on the verge of sleep, she had her head resting against his shoulder. Rian was sitting poking at a plate of plastic looking food from the cafeteria and Zack was sitting staring into space. They all just looked to numb to contemplate anything. I leant forward and resting my head in my elbows on the table and shut my eyes, instantly falling asleep.

'Tay?' someone was saying, shaking me awake. I opened my eyes groggily, it was Jack.

'Alex just woke up, we can visit him now, just one at a time and we thought you should go first' he said, I didn't even bother to argue. I just wanted to see him, though I knew how much everyone else wanted to as well.

'Thank you Jack.' I said and hugged him, he seemed slight taken aback at first but returned it all the same. I smiled at him and a nurse led me through a maze of corridors, she stopped at one and pushed the door open. I caught slight of Alex and my breath hitched. He had small scars and scratched covering his face but the huge one from his temple had butterfly's holding it together. He groggily looked over and smiled weakly at me.

'Hey there Tay' he said, his eyes half shut. I walked over to his bed and smiled at him.

'Hi Lexie' I said, he groaned

'Please don't use Jack's name for me' he said trying to joke, I chuckled mechanically, just happy that no matter how much he'd been hurt on the outside, he was still himself inside, cracking jokes and laughing like he always did.

SHOUT OUT TO AMBER FOR LETTING ME USE THIS PART FROM HER STORY SNAKE BITE HEART ~RJ


	9. right now

**2 months later**

**TAY**

I winced as Jordan threw another piece of cookie at me.

'Stop it!' I said laughing and threw my whole one back, hitting him square in between the eyes. He grunted and brushed the crumbs off his forehead.

'I've got our fans all over me' He said brushing more crumbs off his jeans. I rolled my eyes at him just as the doorbell rang, I sprung off the couch and went to answer it. I opened it and Alex's friendly face was smiling at me.

'Hello!' he said and leaned down to kiss me before walking in, we both flopped down on the couch. He ran his fingers through his fringe, revealing the now slightly faded scar down his temple. I traced my fingers along the puckered skin and he smiled at me.

'So I came with a question for you guys.' He said leaning forward to prop his elbows on his knees.

'and what is that?' Cam asked

'How would you guys feel about opening for us on our UK tour in the new year' he said, we all sat in silence for a minute, exchanging glances before smiled spit across all of our faces.

'are you shitting us?' Mike said, laughing disbelievingly, Alex shook his head.

'Well then I say fuck yes we will!' I said and they all laughed but I had an over whelming feeling of happiness grownign inside me. Over the last couple of months fans had grown to like me, some of them had apologised and I couldn't be happier than I am. Right here.

**SHORT BUT SWEET? JUST HAD TO FIND A WAY TO END IT, AND IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED I'M STARTING A NEW STORY WITH TORI AND JACK. SORT OF A PREQUEL? SO FOLLOW US AS AN AUTHOR AND YOU'LL GET TOLD WHEN THAT GOES UP! THANKS FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT ON THESE STORIES! I'M SO HAPPY THAT PEOPLE ENJOY THEM! ~RJ 3 XXX**


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